Congressman Barney Frank's legislative proposal to legalise online gambling in the United States – bill HR 2267 – has attracted its sixty-first political supporter.

Representative Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, signed up as a co-sponsor this week, following in the footsteps of Connecticut representative John B. Larson, who became the sixtieth sponsor last week.

Frank hopes to bring the bill to the House floor during the current session of Congress, but time has become a scarce commodity in a Congress preoccupied with bringing the US economy back to health after the recent sub-prime mortgage meltdown. Frank is also campaigning for a delay in the implementation of the regulations supporting the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act – scheduled for December 1st – until these controversial measures can be fully debated.

The attempt to delay the UIGEA regulations is supported by 20 politicians on Capitol Hill, who recently wrote to the Federal Reserve governor and the US Treasury urging them to put a hold on the regulations in order to first resolve problems already being experienced by financial institutions charged with enforcing the Act.